In the February 2008 issue of Dive Log Australasia David Roe, the HarbourKeepers and CoastKeepers Coordinator for NPA-Marine, wrote an article entitled “Marine Debris: The Ocean’s Deadliest Predator.” It contained the following alarming statistics:

• A green turtle that starved to death was found to have 76 pieces of plastic and fishing line blocking its stomach
• An autopsy of a Bryde’s whale that died after beaching revealed that it has a stomach full of plastic bags totaling 6 square meters
• Eighty percent of the marine debris originated on land
• Each year, 6 million tons of debris enters the oceans
• Every sq km of the ocean is estimated to contain 18,000 pieces of plastic
• The estimated annual death toll from plastic in the water is 1 million sea birds and 100,000 marine mammals and sea turtles
• Plastics are the most damaging marine debris
  • Once one animal ingests plastic, it is passed on through the food chain, or re-enters the system when the animal dies
  • Plastic bags are often swallowed by turtles and seals who mistake them for jellyfish
  • Chemicals leach out of the plastic, further polluting waters
• Cigarette butts are among the most commonly found piece of litter
  • An estimated 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are littered worldwide each year
  • Cigarette butts take approximately 5 years to break down
  • Cigarettes contain thousands of chemicals including arsenic, which then leaches into water